While Thursday night was a good one for the Indiana Hoosiers in regards to the return of guard Maurice Creek to the floor (his first game action since January 2011), there are also two eligibility questions that have yet to be answered.

Freshmen Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Peter Jurkin have still yet to be fully cleared by the NCAA, and with the Hoosiers’ opener against Bryant being a week away the hope is that a decision is made soon.

“What I can say about that is that we go through a lot in a program,” he said. “There’s situations that are always going to arise and every one of them has got a process to it. And we’re in the middle of that process. We just are. That’s the extent of it. They’re two great kids that are trying to get better every day and it’s not like it’s anything that we’re dealing with that just came up. It’s been a process for some time. And that’s really where we’re at with it.”

Jurkin played 11 minutes in Indiana’s 86-57 victory over Indiana Wesleyan, scoring four points and grabbing one rebound, while Mosquera-Perea sat out with an injured left foot that has given him trouble throughout the preseason.

According to John Infante, Jurkin playing in the exhibition likely means that he’s received his amateur certification from the NCAA and the same could very well be true for Mosquera-Perea.

So what’s the issue that has kept the NCAA from granting these two full clearance to play? It seems as if there are a variety of possibilities here:

As far as what the decision for Jurkin is, there are a few possibilities:

A final certification, but Indiana is checking out potential amateurism issues on their own.

A final certification, but Indiana is checking out other eligibility issues, like the use of seasons of eligibility.

A final certification that includes a suspension for regular season games, and Indiana just hasn’t told anyone.

A waiver to play in the exhibition while certification is ongoing (which would be more or less unprecedented).

How quickly this situation gets resolved is important to Indiana from a depth standpoint, as senior Derek Elston is out with a torn meniscus. Cody Zeller and Christian Watford clearly lead the way up front, but they’re going to need help even if the other guys aren’t called upon for major numbers.

How much Jurkin and Mosquera-Perea can contribute this season remains to be seen, but with an experienced reserve like Elston also out this becomes a bigger deal than it would be if he were healthy.